Frances Faye

Frances Faye, born Frances Cohen on November 4, 1912, in Brooklyn, New York City, was an American cabaret singer, show tune performer, and pianist. She came from a working-class Jewish family and was a second cousin of Danny Kaye. She died on November 8, 1991, at the age of 79.

Faye's entertainment career began when she was 15 years old, performing in nightclubs where she first established her reputation. Her solo recording debut came in 1936, and she went on to record approximately a dozen albums across multiple labels, among them Capitol Records, Imperial Records, Verve Records, and Bethlehem Records. She also composed the song "Well All Right," which the Andrews Sisters recorded. Her stage work brought her to Broadway in 1943, when she appeared in the musical Artists and Models.

Her act became widely recognized for its incorporation of double entendres and references to homosexuality and lesbianism. Faye was bisexual and frequently alluded to this in her performances, often altering pronouns in love songs or inserting references to her partner into lyrics. She inserted the phrase "it's a Teri, Teri day" into "The Man I Love" and, on national television, sang "why do all the boys treat Teri so right" within "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate."

Beyond the stage and recording studio, Faye appeared in film as well. She had a role in the 1937 Bing Crosby film Double or Nothing, in which she sang "After You." Decades later, she returned to film in Louis Malle's 1978 production Pretty Baby, playing an elderly cocaine-sniffing madam. Faye also sang backing vocals on the track 9 reprise of "Just a Gigolo (Schoner Gigolo)" on Peter Allen's 1974 album Continental American, and Allen publicly credited her as a major influence on his work.

Faye married twice during the 1940s. In the late 1950s, Teri Shepherd became both her manager and lifelong partner. Shepherd later discussed their relationship in Bruce Weber's 2001 documentary film Chop Suey. In 1955, Faye was arrested in Los Angeles on a narcotics charge; police alleged that she and three men arrested alongside her possessed marijuana. Beginning in 1958, a hip accident led to a series of health problems that persisted through the 1960s, though she continued to tour into the early 1980s before retiring. At the time of her death in 1991, she was living with Shepherd.